Ukraine calls for Russia’s removal from UN Security Council

Kyiv – Ukraine on Monday called for Russia to be removed from the United Nations Security Council, where Moscow can veto any resolution as a permanent member of the council.

“Ukraine calls on the member states of the UN... to deprive the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to exclude it from the UN as a whole,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement said that Russia “illegally occupies the seat of the USSR in the UN Security Council” since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“From a legal and political point of view, there can be only one conclusion: Russia is a usurper of the Soviet Union’s seat in the UN Security Council,” the ministry added.

“Three decades of its illegal presence in the UN have been marked by wars and seizures of other countries’ territories,” it added.

The five permanent members of the 15-seat UN Security Council have veto power over UN resolutions. They are China, the United States, France, Britain and Russia.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during a national television marathon on Sunday that the question of Russia’s permanent seat in the council was already being discussed around diplomacy circles. “These issues are not yet discussed at press conferences and in public statements by the leaders of states and governments, but at a lower level, people are already asking the question – what Russia should become like in order not to pose a threat to peace and security.”

The powerful Security Council is tasked with tackling global crises by enacting sanctions, authorising military action and approving changes to the UN Charter. But the permanent five reflect the power dynamics at the end of World War II.

Countries have long pleaded for reform of the Security Council, with some criticising the lack of representation when it comes to permanent seats for African and Latin American countries.

The body can also be rendered impotent by a single veto-wielding member – as was shown in February when diplomats carried on reading pre-written statements just as

Russia started bombarding Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden in September said

he supported an expansion of the Security Council

and for it to “become more inclusive” – a rare call for action from Washington, given that it famously bypassed the Council to invade Iraq during Mr George W. Bush’s administration.

Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Western powers have pored through UN procedural rules to ensure Russia does not block Security Council meetings. They have turned to another UN body – the 193-member General Assembly – to seek condemnation of the Kremlin’s actions. AFP